Which cartridge is the Imaging/soundstaging champ

Jim,

The JMW-9's fairly low effective mass actually makes a ZYX a better *theoretical* match than a Shelter, at least as far as compliance is concerned.

To get optimal bass and dynamics from a ZYX on a fairly low mass arm you'd need to increase mass at the headshell by 6g or so, much as VPI recommends and supplies a headshell weight for cartridges like Shelters.

ZYX offers their own optional weight on the Airy 2 and above. Another option would be choose a less costly ZYX and use VPI's headshell weight or fabricate your own.

Would you hear the difference between an Airy 2 and your Grado Statement Sonata? Absolutely. The differences are enormous, beyond comparison even. Would you hear "everything" the Airy 2 is capable of? Frankly I don't know, since I've never heard/used a JMW. You might ask Mehran. He probably has JMW owners using his cartridges. Or post that question here or on VA.

Whether you should choose Lyra, Shelter, ZYX or something else depends alot on your sonic goals and musical tastes. Since imaging and soundstaging are what you mentioned first I'd focus on Lyra, ZYX and possibly Dynavector. At sub-$4K price levels Lyras are a touch lean, cool or analytical. Dyna's a trace rich in the mids. ZYX's fall in between, they always seem to be neutral. It's a matter of matching your tastes and system.

BTW, make sure you have appropriate gain and impedance from your phono stage before buying any LOMC. Otherwise you're wasting your money.

Dear Jim: Like other already posted the soundstage depends on many factors: tonearm/cartridge matching, speakers/room interaction, phonopreamp, amplifier, cables, manipulation on the record process by the sound engineer, load impedance, VTA/VTF, Azimuth, etc., etc,. You think that the Grado is the culprit but I'm not sure ( I never heard your cartridge model ) there are several factors about and for what Rushton posted the Grados are very good cartridges, not perfect but good cartridges.

What I'm worried is that you have " deficient image placement ", this could tell me that you have not only the Grado problem ( and I don't know if the Grado is the problem ) but maybe a phonopreamp problem because lesser cartridges with lesser TT/tonearm/electronics almost always have good to very good imaging, this audio reproduction characteristic ( Imaging ) is relative easy to achieve for almost any audio system that are not faulty, that's why I presume that you have some problems other/additional to your Grado cartridge and those problems could be on your phono stage or phono cable or both or your Grado is out of specs: something is out of synergy there. I don't think that " unipivot or not unipivot " was the main problem and certain not the stylus profile.

Now, why don't try to borrow a different cartridge/phono cable or phono stage for a friend or some one and test on your system and see what happen.

Btw, there is something that I can't understand or at least I don't have an answer for sure: you post that the tonal balance on your system is from good to excellent ( I understand on CD and LP, right? ) and I don't know which speakers do you own but it is extremely rare that an audio system where its tonal balance ( I understand this top to bottom in the frequency audio range )( one of the most important music reproduction characteristic ) is right on target has a deficient imaging.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Raul:
There are probably two issues. First, my phono cable is pretty new (Cardas Neutral Reference) and probably needs more break-in, I think I need to replace the tubes in my phono section,as I believe they're getting noisy ( I have the EAR 864 preamp which is a single chassis version of the EAR 834P & the EAR 834 line stage).My speakers (Von Schweikert VR4jr) are set up well because they develop a beautiful holographic stage with good digital material.
The other factor is probably my extrremely high expextations. The soundstage is good with decent image body and good depth, but I'm looking for truly outsanding 3 dimensionality that I believe my analog front end is capable of.
I realize that analog excellence comes from a series of small improvements.
My Grado cartridge, while acceptable is definitely not a high resolution piece.
I knew it when I got it, but wanted something inexpensive (less than $500)
to get started with.

Dear Jim: Now, I understand a little more about. Your speakers are great ones in their frequency range and a very good tool for " discovery "/detect problems in the audio chain.

Usually the Cardas cables needs around 300 hours ( at least ) to achieve its target. I never heard yours so I can't speak about but I have the Golden reference and is avery good one. Of course the new tubes will make a difference.

Btw, if you want/need to change the cartridge ( I will do it ) think about Sumiko Blackbird or Sumiko Celebration, both mates very good with your tonearm. Why don't you do something: ask directly to Mr. Weisfeld on VPI on his opinion on these Sumiko cartridges mated with VPI products that you have.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Doug,thanks SO much for the kind words.In all honesty the only thing I may(?)have added(I find it hard to believe others were not aware of some of this),on the helpful side,was some hard learned 2.2 aspects of tweaking it to max performance. I'm now beginning to wonder whether it(mine) is really meaningfully optimized without a REALLY good digital guage(most guages,of this type,except the WINDS,which I'll be getting soon,exibit drift.My current one is cute,but I don't trust it,after recent experience with the Winds).I trust few of them,and am looking forward to getting a bit more from my LP's!I really think,after recently reconfiguring my pal's 2.2,with a new Venustas(Purist)armlink,using a borrowed Winds guage,that it will be a new "KEY" to my own analog bliss!

The rest of my posts actually "sucked",and I really was a "putz" to allow the other me to think that I could get away with some of the muckraking I tried.As it is I get the distinct impression(sadly),that a really fine guy like Larry was put off enough to distance himself a bit!I hope I'm wrong,here!!

My only reason for reposting again,aside from a lovely E-mail from Raul(who happens to be a really decent guy,outside of his inaccurately perceived persona,and I always felt that way),was because I figured that I could gain additional insight(there's always stuff to "ponder")from associations here,and sometimes I may(?)be able to add something meaningful.So,in reality I'm back for selfish reasons,and to gain from picking up new insights,from people like YOU!

Thanks!!!